Housing Prices Climb; Market 'Clearly Recovering'

U.S. single-family home prices rose in November, building on a string of gains that points to a housing market that is on the mend, data from a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday.

The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.6 percent in November on a seasonally adjusted basis, in line with economists' forecasts.

Prices on a non-adjusted basis slipped 0.1 percent. The non-adjusted numbers showed prices fell in about half of the cities covered by the survey, with the winter months typically a weak period for housing, the survey said.

"Housing is clearly recovering", David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indexes, said in a statement.

"There's a lot of momentum," he added during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "It shows up in all the housing statistics, not just the prices. As far as I can see it's going to continue well into the new year."

Prices in the 20 cities rose 5.5 percent year over year.

It was the 10th month in a row that prices have increased, the longest string of gains since before the market started to turn down in 2006.

The housing market became a bright spot for the economy last year as prices rose and inventory tightened. The sector is expected to contribute to economic growth in 2013.

To view this site, you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser, and either the Flash Plugin or an HTML5-Video enabled browser. Download the latest Flash player and try again.